Board ends run of aerospace council

There are three fewer letters - OAC - in the alphabet soup of Northeast Ohio economic development organizations.
Board members of the Ohio Aerospace Council, a nonprofit that has functioned as a lobbyist for the NASA Glenn Research Center, voted last Tuesday, Dec. 16, to disband the organization.
OAC's functions - primarily lobbying federal legislators and agencies on behalf of NASA Glenn and promoting the center as an economic engine for the region - will be assumed by other nonprofits.
The OAC board, which included University of Akron president Luis Proenza as well as officials from local aerospace companies and the cities of Cleveland and Brook Park, now will serve as an advisory group to the Northeast Ohio Technology Coalition, or NorTech.
'OAC will continue, but in a new form,' Dr. Proenza told board members during the meeting.
NorTech will pull together the agenda of budget matters and other important issues that local business and government leaders want to present to federal legislators and officials at NASA headquarters, Dr. Proenza said. However, the message will be carried to federal officials by lobbyists at Greater Cleveland Tomorrow, the new organization coming together from the merger of the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, Cleveland Tomorrow and the Greater Cleveland Roundtable.
John Lewis, a former OAC chairman and former managing partner at Cleveland law firm Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP, said he was worried that the lobbying issues of NASA Glenn might get lost among many regional issues. Even so, Mr. Lewis, who remained on the OAC board, voted to disband the organization. Mr. Lewis later said he believes Greater Cleveland Tomorrow, like OAC did in the past, has NASA Glenn's best interest at heart.
The OAC board had considered merging the organization with the Ohio Aerospace Institute, another nonprofit established to help NASA Glenn. OAI, based in Brook Park, brings together for collaborative research purposes scientists from NASA Glenn, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, aerospace companies with operations in Ohio, and various Ohio universities.
However, OAI's board decided against such a merger because the organization works directly with NASA Glenn staff, which would have presented a conflict of interest when lobbying for the research center. OAI nonetheless will assume some of OAC's role in commercializing technology developed at NASA Glenn, said OAI president Bill Seelbach.
NASA Glenn director Julian Earls, though not an OAC board member, attended the OAC meeting last week. After the meeting, he said the changes will appear 'transparent' to the research center.
OAC 'served a useful purpose to Glenn,' Dr. Earls said. In the past, he said, OAC would lobby without the input of NASA Glenn officials. In the future, he plans to have a representative of the center attend each meeting of the NorTech OAC advisory board.
'The issue to Glenn is that they have an accurate database of what they put on their agenda,' Dr. Earls said.
The disbanding of OAC as a standalone organization comes as NorTech is working to consolidate the nonprofit intermediaries working with Northeast Ohio entrepreneurs and research institutions.